ST. PAUL, Minn. — Saint Mary’s University men’s soccer coach Chris Dembiec has seen the two-act before:
Act 1 — create scoring chances and come up empty.
Act 2 — commit one defensive mistake, and their opponent makes them pay.
And Saturday afternoon, he saw it again.
The Cardinals attempted 12 shots in their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest against Hamline, with the four shots that found the net all being turned aside by Piper goalkeeper Zach Nelson.
The Pipers, meanwhile, were thwarted time and time again by SMU goalkeeper
Jon Szafranski (Barrington, Ill.), who finished with seven saves — including stopping a second-half penalty kick by Hamline’s Drew Lukas.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Szafranski wasn’t able to make save No. 8, as Matt Warhol took advantage of a Cardinal defensive lapse to beat Szafranski with the game’s only goal, lifting Hamline to a 1-0 conference victory.
“It’s disappointing, because this was a game in which we played very well at both ends of the field,” said SMU coach Chris Dembiec. “Offensively, we possessed the ball for over 70 percent of the game, we just weren’t able to punch anything past their keeper.
“(Hamline) was able to counter-attack us once — taking advantage of our defender slipping — and they turned it into the only goal of the game,” Dembiec added. “It’s the same old story, we’re getting chances and not scoring, and our opponent’s getting one chance, and they make it hurt.”
The Pipers actually had two chances, but Szafranski was up to the task by stopping Lukas on a penalty kick in the 58th minute.
“Jon played great — we’re just not giving him any offensive support,” said Dembiec, whose team returns to action Saturday, traveling to Saint John’s for a 3 p.m. conference showdown against the Johnnies. “This was one of the better games we’ve played in terms of possessing the ball and creating good scoring chances — we’ve just got ot find a way to put the ball in the net.”